Take Back Higher Education

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Take Back Higher Education

• Race, Youth, and the Crisis of Democracy in the
  Post-Civil Rights Era

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Drs. Henry and Susan Giroux

• Henry A. Giroux holds the Global Television
  Network Chair in Communications in the Faculty of
  Humanities at McMaster University in Canada.
  Susan Searls Giroux is Assistant Professor in the
  English Department at McMaster University.
  Theyve both written a number of books on the
  theory of education.

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How is our democracy in crisis?

• Growing hostility towards education
• Decline of the welfare state
• Loss of the public sphere

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Growing Hostility Towards Education
Mid-1970s backlash against affirmative action and
busing Schools attacked for inefficiency Educati
on as the weak link in the War on Terror
John Walker Lindh
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Decline of the Welfare State

• Welfare Cuts
• Health Care Cuts
• Financial Aid Cuts
• Growth of the Prison-Industrial Complex
• Tax Cuts Favoring the Wealthy

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Loss of the Public Sphere

• Cynicism
• Collective needs give way to individual needs
• Dissent as unpatriotic

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Who causes these problems?
Corporations
The Bush Administration
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Corporations
Replace social values with consumer values
Turn education in to job training
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Corporations
Globalization
Influence governmental policy
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Bush Administration
Attacks on education
Slashing social programs
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Bush Administration
Fear Mongering
Quashing Discussion
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How can we save democracy?

• Develop a vocabulary of resistance
• Faculty need to become more publicly engaged
• Cultivate critical thinking in the younger
  generation